"We are seeing customers particularly in retail changing their pattern of behavior, moving to more digital and online banking and we need to respond. Unfortunately, that means we need less people to process these things," Flynn said. "This is a big program, that will need implementing."

Flynn said the group had performed well despite a "a difficult European environment" and that underlying net profits were down just 5 percent on last year.

He said the results included a number of one-off effects such as a bank tax. He added that the bank had received 30 billion euros of additional deposits in 2012, while paying the state back one billion euros.

"We still kept our capital core tier-one ratio one of the best in Europe at 11.9 percent," he said.